2 July 2012 Edition

1972: British Army licence to kill as GOC met UDA

SECRET BRITISH GOVERNMENT SECURITY SUMMIT GAVE TROOPS IMMUNITY FOR KILLINGS AFTER TRUCE WITH IRA BROKE DOWN

In the minutes of the meeting, the British Army’s most senior officer praises the vigilante efforts of the UDA. Loyalists killed 27 Catholics in July 1972; the UDA were responsible for at least 16 of these killings

OFFICIAL British Government documents
marked ‘Secret’ from July 1972 uncovered by campaign group Relatives for
Justice reveal evidence of the British Government and the British Army’s high
command effectively giving their soldiers a licence to kill without fear of
prosecution in operations aimed at crushing republican resistance.

They also show that the British military
and political machine saw the loyalist UDA sectarian death squads as allies in
their war against the IRA.

The document (published in the past
fortnight by Relatives for Justice) is of a 10 July 1972 strategic government
and security meeting at Stormont Castle involving Secretary for State William
Whitelaw MP; the North’s most senior British Army officer, General Officer
Commanding (GOC) General Ford; the Deputy Chief Constable of the RUC; Lord
Windlesham the British Government’s representative in the House of Lords;
British MPs; and senior civil servants from the NIO and London concerning the
aftermath of the breaking down of the British Army’s truce with the IRA.

The document reveals:

British
soldiers would be indemnified from prosecution concerning the British
Government’s policy to pursue the war against the IRA;

Highlights
the links and levels of co-operation between the UDA and the British Army’s
most senior officer at a time when UDA death squads were engaged in an
intensive sectarian murder campaign;

That
the British Government would publicly blame the IRA for the ending of the
truce.

Details in the document show that those at
the meeting believed or decided:

‘If
the British Army did not now attack the IRA the probability was that the UDA
would.’

‘Plans
were to be produced urgently for the containment of areas known to harbour
bombers and gunmen.’

‘More
troops and materials would be needed for the operations visualised.’

‘The
GOC would see UDA leaders that afternoon.’

‘The
Secretary of State would return to London immediately to make a statement to
the House of Commons in which he would . . . (ii) put the blame for the ending
of the ‘truce’ fairly and squarely on the Provisionals . . . announce the
Government’s intention to carry on the war with the IRA with the utmost
vigour.’

The
[British] Army should not be inhibited in its campaign by the threat of court
proceedings and should therefore be suitably indemnified.’

The shooting dead of a Catholic priest and
five civilians in west Belfast by the British Army the day before the meeting
are also mentioned.

Relatives for Justice Director Mark
Thompson said:

“Of the approximate 300 killings by the
British Army, there has only been convictions in three cases. All of those
convicted were released significantly early and reinstated back to their
regiments; some were promoted.

“The discovery of this document
indemnifying British soldiers from the threat of court proceedings whilst they
took their ‘war’ to nationalist communities with the ‘utmost vigour’ is the
first official documented evidence of a policy amounting to impunity. It is a
clear amnesty being put in place for what would later occur and the inevitable
loss of life.”

“In 1972, the British Army killed 79
people. Not one soldier was held to account for these killings.”

In July 1972, the British Army killed 20
unarmed Catholics, 14 of whom were killed in days following the meeting from
which this document emerges. Many more were shot and injured.